Bulwell & Basford
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Walking & Cycling Guide Bulwell & Basford SMOKE IN THE VALLEY SMOKE IN THE VALLEY “The furnaces flared in a red blotch over Bulwell; the black clouds were like a low ceiling” DH Lawrence, Sons & Lovers, 1913 Bulwell and Basford are the best places in north Nottingham to witness the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. In contrast with Bilborough, Aspley and Bestwood, which are mostly spacious twentieth century suburbs built upon hills, this area grew from an industrial valley with manufacturing and terraces in close proximity. Running through this hive of activity has always been the River Leen, an important source of water and power. The characteristic medieval street pattern radiates from its key crossing points and the Leen Valley is home to some of the oldest industries in the city, especially milling, quarrying, bleaching and framework knitting. The railways arrived in the 1840s – a revolution in communication – at first following the river and later criss-crossing the valley with competing lines. The small workshops were upgraded to factories and as the population expanded rows of red-brick terraces and chapels spread up the valley. Huge social changes were also taking place: in religion, recreation, social services, entertainment and local democracy. Perhaps the car has not been as kind to the Leen Valley as the railways: new expressways bypassed old streets with little regard to the neighbourhoods they ran through, or the details of their architecture. However, since the 1980s a new emphasis on safety as well as sustainable and public transport, coupled with the Bulwellian spirit of fighting for access to their green spaces, has resulted in a number of changes. People now enjoy the NET tram route and River Leen Greenway – a car free route all the way from Images from top to bottom: Strelley Bulwell to Basford and soon to House*, The ruins of Bulwell Hall stables be extended much further. with ST Cooper's initials, Basford House*, The Prince of Wales Brewery* 1. Ancient River is the 1730 manor, Basford House, (5) built by local landowner Thomas Langford, Mayor of Nottingham. By the end of the eighteenth century it housed the historian and hosiery merchant Thomas Bailey. A mile or so further north the Anglo Saxons found suitable grazing land St Leodigarius* to keep their bulls adjacent to a spring – probably at Moorbridge After establishing Nottingham by pond. This became Bulwell and the seventh century, the Anglo again near the principle crossing Saxons followed the course of – this time at Station St – is where the River Leen and found new you will find the oldest buildings settlements on its banks. The such as the former grammar ford, belonging to an Anglo school on Corporation Rd (6). Saxon named ‘Basa’, was to Built in 1667 by a descendent of become Basford and the early the great Strelley family, Strelley streets radiated from its three House is among the earliest brick principle crossings: David Lane, structures in the city. Notice also Nottingham Road and Church the impressive Bulwell stone barn Street. Amid these streets are the at the rear, both similar in structure Medieval walls of a religious cell and date as the c.1800 houses on (1) and the impressive church of Main St (7) and Cinderhill Road (8). St Leodegarius (2) dating from Overseeing all this were the church at least 1086 (excellent slate and the landowners and though headstones can be found scatted the church of St Mary’s (9) was about the churchyard). Between completely rebuilt in the 1850s its them ran Lincoln St, the centre of ancient position serves to remind village life until the later twentieth us how religion dominated local century. Notice the Fox and Crown life. Meanwhile the local gentry pub (3) and the various Bulwell was housed in a large manor stone workshops and forges (4), at Bulwell Hall (10) – today only all originating from the Georgian the Victorian stables remain. period. Also from the same period 2. Industrial Origins This same limestone was also known as ‘Bulwell Stone’ and it was first quarried off Corporation Rd – originally named Quarry Lane – where you can still spot various traces of this activity. One example is at the rear of the listed St John’s Church (13), which is also built from the local stone. Another is the Forge Mill oldest crossing over the Leen (14), a bridge built in the 1830s, financed If the Industrial Revolution is said to by the gentry at Bulwell Hall (S.T. have begun during the latter half of Cooper) and built by a local stone the Georgian period, then Bulwell mason named George Holmes and Basford were certainly a part – his initials are on the northern of it. Not only was this a landscape keystone. This accessible and of stone forges but also along the busy atmosphere drew framework fast flowing course of the River knitters who were manufacturing Leen were countless mills. Forge hosiery and recalled by Lord Mill (11) was one of a number of Byron in 1812 during a speech cotton spinning mills built by the on the Luddite protests, “Such Robinson brothers who were also marchings and counter marchings! early pioneers in the application of From Nottingham to Bulwell, from steam engines. Mills such as Mill St Bulwell to Basford …” The early Mill (12) were also used for grinding nineteenth century Pear Tree Pub, corn, while others were used for (15) reminds us that Bulwell Lane bleaching textiles. This was a was the original thoroughfare major part of the local economy, between these locations. which required not only chloride from the local limestone but also the wide open spaces at Mill Street park to bleach the material in sunlight. Nearby, Cinderhill takes its name from the burning embers left by the lime kilns. 3. The Railways Arrive The Midland Railway arrived in 1849 following the floodplain of the Leen, feeding not only on the commerce of the growing towns but also nearby coal mines. Thanks to the reopening of the ‘Robin Hood Line’ in 1993 and NET tram in 2004 this route survives today and you can still enjoy the restored Edwardian iron pedestrian bridge Pearson's bleachworks, beside the Leen* at David Lane (16). Yet these are With such improvements in only fragments of the numerous communication local commerce competing company lines which grew in strength. The fine buildings were mostly axed in the 1960s. and former shop fronts which Like some lost civilisation, curious surround Bulwell Market, Main earthworks and bits of blue St, Commercial Rd and Lincoln engineering brick are scatted St are telling reminders. There over the landscape, such as the was even a local architect in the Great Central route beside the Edwardian period and today you Bulwell Forest Golf Course (17) and can see his handsome design Great Northern embankments as for a former doctor’s surgery viewed from Leonard Street (18). (21). At Old Basford this pattern The Catchems Corner Pub (19) of late nineteenth and early was so called because you could twentieth century prosperity was "catch ’em both ways"; take either repeated in the local industry: the GNR train from the Bulwell & Pearson’s Bleach works (22) Basford Station at Park Lane, or beside the river, the magnificent the nearby trams. The tramways Prince of Wales Brewery (23) and Vernon Rd with its huge wall and the sophisticated E Sallis (20) were built in the 1880s. At Hosiery works (24). At Church first the early trams were pulled St Cemetery (25) the decaying by horses and so this wall was monuments to key Victorian required to shield them from the entrepreneurs can still be made fright of passing steam engines. out: Thomas North (coal mining) and Charles Cox (bleaching). 4. Social Change A Bulwell Stone former chapel, Main St Old Bulwell library and St Mary's Church Standards of living in the The c. 1880 iron footbridge (29) nineteenth century was a tale of and the Battle of the Bogs marks two halves. Since the Napoleonic the turning point for social change Wars there had been a slump in along the Leen Valley – a victory the hosiery trade, and framework for local democracy against the knitters, undercut by rising wishes of a private landowner rents and low skilled labour, (Percy Cooper of Bulwell Hall) took to smashing their masters’ who wished to enclose the park. machinery. The response from the It was also a legal success for authorities was less than helpful the Corporation of Nottingham, – a workhouse was built in 1815. which was then bringing Bulwell Nothing survives of the actual and Basford within its bounds. building apart from a perimeter The libraries of Bulwell (30) and wall (26) but it is still enough to Basford (31), Bulwell Forest Golf give the impression of a prison for Course (32), Vernon Park (33), the unemployed. For a time the North Street Baths (34) and the working class could not find much council houses of Highbury Vale solace in the established church, and Whitemoor are testament building their own “nonconformist” to that great historical theme chapels scatted throughout the of municipal enterprise from Leen Valley (27) – the earliest on the 1870s to the late 1930s. Handel St is dated 1811 (28). N d R O T r T o o IN G M H A M R A O 6 A 1 1 D Park A6 Rd 11 Rd N rk O P a a P T r d k T R R d I r N o G o M H A M A 61 R 1 O A D BESTWOOD Walking & Cycling Map VILLAGE A 6 d 11 6 R N r C Bulwell, Highbury Vale o o N 11 M & Basford BESTWOOD 2 d COUNTRY PARK 8 R 6 d B o o w t s e B 10 Moor Bridge Moor 6 N Key C N Brownlow Dr d 2 R Cycle / Pedestrian Path 8 M d 6 O o B Pedestrians Only O o R w t B s Off Road Cycle Lane R e I L D B awt on D G